MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems

Are there really so few people with problems after installing the new firmware? My MBP is completely unusable now. I get a beach ball every 10 seconds that lasts 20-30 seconds. I get it opening web pages, opening applications, opening finder, opening system preferences, etc. etc. Even if I don't open anything and just try to type, the beach ball keeps coming up. I tried to post this using the MBP but just gave up.

I've tried formatting and reinstalling OSX from scratch, I've tried doing all the Onyx repairing/cleaning suggested in this thread, but it doesn't help. I've got the WD Scorpio Blue in there now, but I've tried putting back the original drive that came with the computer but it's still the same.

This is my first Mac that I got less than a week ago. It was absolutely perfect and super fast when I first got it, then the firmware patch came and it's like a heavy paperweight now I was really falling in love with this machine but this experience has really added a sour taste to my experience... hope they fix this issue soon.

less than a week. take it back and demand your money back stating the problem. or exchange it for a new one if you think you would like ot try another one.

well i am avoiding the update for now. i have no ssd and the machine runs great, so i will ocntinue to watch how the update goes with other users.

i learned several years ago to not jump on the updates too quickly when i updated and my wi-fi was unusable for a week until they had yet another update to fix the last update.....

let someone else be a beta tester. lol.

"Oooh, we're sorry. We can only help you with a hard drive that you buy from Apple on your brand new Macbook Pro." Looks like Apple's playing 'gotcha' once again.

So... In effect what this update did was render all the third party HD's unusable.
Thus vindicating Apple because now people will really be pleased with their factory shipped disks
Good grief.. What terrible engineers they're hiring now days.

HungryPillow said:

Are there really so few people with problems after installing the new firmware? My MBP is completely unusable now. I get a beach ball every 10 seconds that lasts 20-30 seconds. I get it opening web pages, opening applications, opening finder, opening system preferences, etc. etc. Even if I don't open anything and just try to type, the beach ball keeps coming up. I tried to post this using the MBP but just gave up.

I've tried formatting and reinstalling OSX from scratch, I've tried doing all the Onyx repairing/cleaning suggested in this thread, but it doesn't help. I've got the WD Scorpio Blue in there now, but I've tried putting back the original drive that came with the computer but it's still the same.

This is my first Mac that I got less than a week ago. It was absolutely perfect and super fast when I first got it, then the firmware patch came and it's like a heavy paperweight now I was really falling in love with this machine but this experience has really added a sour taste to my experience... hope they fix this issue soon.

Click to expand...

i had this exact same problem with the stock drive... i ran onyx and reset the PRAM (turn off your mbp, then turn it on while pressing cmd+option+p+r until it chimes a second time). doing that has cleared up the issue for me completely.

baseline01 said:

So... In effect what this update did was render all the third party HD's unusable.
Thus vindicating Apple because now people will really be pleased with their factory shipped disks
Good grief.. What terrible engineers they're hiring now days.

Click to expand...

Want to use my Jump to Conclusions Mat?

Lots of people have stated that they upgraded with 3rd party drives and everything works, even some in this thread.

qpid said:

Want to use my Jump to Conclusions Mat?

Lots of people have stated that they upgraded with 3rd party drives and everything works, even some in this thread.

Click to expand...

Um, there is no way to justify anybody having problems with a firmware update. These are all standard drives people are using. The problem is clearly more than sporadic.

This is a mistake on Apples part, lets not pretend otherwise.

qpid said:

Want to use my Jump to Conclusions Mat?

Lots of people have stated that they upgraded with 3rd party drives and everything works, even some in this thread.

Click to expand...

Good one and good movie.

Bluehinder said:

Um, there is no way to justify anybody having problems with a firmware update. These are all standard drives people are using. The problem is clearly more than sporadic.

This is a mistake on Apples part, lets not pretend otherwise.

Click to expand...

Absolutely must be Apple's fault for breaking every single drive in every single mbp... oh wait that did not happen. Why are people on this forum also looking for issues or something to blame Apple for?

I stated that there is no way Apple broke support for all 3rd party drives since people with 3rd party drives are fine. There is likely another cause.

Sorry, but this is a disaster. I bought a Hitachi 5k500.b specifically because it's the drive Apple sells. MUCH slower and tons of beachballs since the firmware update. If this doesn't get fixed within a few weeks, this is my last Apple. I thought I'd had it with my white MacBook but this is worse. WOW Apple, boo

Anyone know if there's a setting to limit the 5k500.b to 1.5? there's gotta be a reason Apple's drives have no problem...

P.S. Due to the disclaimer, until proven otherwise, I'm assuming Apple issued this update deliberately to break aftermarket drive use... That is NOT okay. They have until this Friday to fix this. If it's not, I'll go back to the 160 and NEVER TOUCH AN APPLE PRODUCT AGAIN IN MY LIFE.

qpid said:

Absolutely must be Apple's fault for breaking every single drive in every single mbp... oh wait that did not happen. Why are people on this forum also looking for issues or something to blame Apple for?

I stated that there is no way Apple broke support for all 3rd party drives since people with 3rd party drives are fine. There is likely another cause.

Click to expand...

Some people who make idiotic comments like this above do not belong here.

No one had issues till Apple released the new updated firmware which then broke the communication with their HD. The Firmware has a issue now that it doesn't like some drives and some it does. It is obvious it is Apples fault as no other machine to this day that I know of would have this type of problem with any drive on the market.

AGATA-Apple Giveth, Apple Taketh Away

System logs

To those having frequent beach balls, so you have an entry like this added to your system logs every time it happens?

09-06-27 12:42:01 smartd71 Device: IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@B/AppleMCP79AHCI/PRT0@0/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice, failed to read SMART Attribute Data

Click to expand...

I have beach balls every hours and every time, I have this entry added. I also have trouble getting SMART informations with smartctl (smartmontools) when it happens.

nizmoz said:

Some people who make idiotic comments like this above do not belong here.

No one had issues till Apple released the new updated firmware which then broke the communication with their HD. The Firmware has a issue now that it doesn't like some drives and some it does. It is obvious it is Apples fault as no other machine to this day that I know of would have this type of problem with any drive on the market.

Click to expand...

Yes I forgot 4 people means a conspiracy. It could not be a bad hd, bad ram, dents, incomplete updates, third party software....

Look because 4 people have a problem does not mean a firmware update broke something.

You can add me to the list. Brand new MBP 15" 2.66. The stock Hitachi 320 gb works fine but my new Hitachi 7200 rpm 320 gb will not boot the machine. It will recognize the disk installed on firewire after a lot of work. Looks like the firmware got me too! I may take this one back and get the previous model as a refurb.

it gets improved

it seems like the Onyx and PRAM reset route has reduced quite a bit of beachballs and freezings for me. I only get them once in while now but got 5 CRC error counts since the firmware update ( never had a single one with the same drive in my old alu macbook 13" for 6 months).

Macbook pro 13"
Samsung ssd 256gb

qpid said:

Yes I forgot 4 people means a conspiracy. It could not be a bad hd, bad ram, dents, incomplete updates, third party software....

Look because 4 people have a problem does not mean a firmware update broke something.

Click to expand...

There are a lot more than just 4 people. And it is the firmware as the components work fine out of the system. Keep your day job seriously.

The SATA bus speed issue got a lot of attention, and Apple quickly released the firmware update probably as a result. I don't think the problems with the update itself are getting as much publicity. Anyone with problems should be contacting Apple support.

nizmoz said:

There are a lot more than just 4 people. And it is the firmware as the components work fine out of the system. Keep your day job seriously.

Click to expand...

Please point me to the "lot more than just 4 people" who have this problem? I see this thread and um... this thread.

qpid said:

Please point me to the "lot more than just 4 people" who have this problem? I see this thread and um... this thread.

Click to expand...

Gladly...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/731932/
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9724689#9724689

But anyway, I just wanted to chime in and share my experience with this issue so far.

Ever since I updated the firmware, my OCZ Summit 120GB SSD no longer works in my 15" June 2009 Macbook Pro. Whenever I install it and then try to install OSX, I can never make it through the installation. BUT, if I take it out, put it in my external enclosure, and proceed to do the install via USB, it installs flawlessly. If I then try to boot it up via USB, it works just fine. But, reinserting it into the Macbook and trying to boot up always fails.

So, it seems like people's hard drives have not been "fried" (as some people have mentioned before). It just seems that Apple made some sort of mistake with the firmware where the SATA controller can no longer connect properly with some hard drives.

The one perplexing thing is that my friend has the same hard drive installed on his June 2009 13" Macbook Pro and he has not had any issues. Different hardware? Just random occurrences? Any opinions on this?

I think we need to let Apple hear about this just as we did when they downgraded the SATA to 1.5. Email Phil Schiller, Steve Jobs, leave feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html. Let's be heard to make sure that these issues are fixed!

mt21 said:

Gladly...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/731932/
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9724689#9724689

Click to expand...

Aww the poor people who had to do a PRAM reset to fix the issue! The horror I mean holding down 4 buttons at the same time!! How dare Apple!

qpid said:

Aww the poor people who had to do a PRAM reset to fix the issue! The horror I mean holding down 4 buttons at the same time!! How dare Apple!

Click to expand...

I know this might be hard for you, but if you actually took the time to READ those threads you would have noticed that the PRAM fix did not work for everyone and many people have this issue with STOCK hard drives. So if you don't have a problem with the firmware, good for you, take your posts elsewhere.

mt21 said:

I know this might be hard for you, but if you actually took the time to READ those threads you would have noticed that the PRAM fix did not work for everyone and many people have this issue with STOCK hard drives. So if you don't have a problem with the firmware, good for you, take your posts elsewhere.

Click to expand...

I read the posts and still stand by the fact that only a handful of people have the issue and that they are blaming Apple for a problem that is affecting so very few. I state there are other causes to blame.

I guess however if I am not welcome in this thread I will move along.

What about you?

qpid said:

I read the posts and still stand by the fact that only a handful of people have the issue and that they are blaming Apple for a problem that is affecting so very few. I state there are other causes to blame.

I guess however if I am not welcome in this thread I will move along.

Click to expand...

I believe every one is welcome in this thread, as all knowledge is useful. Snide comments can be left out. Do you have a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 machine that is working after the update? Do you have a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 machine that is not working after the update? Either way there are some that need help with the issue. It's an Apple it should just work, right!!! There are many people out there that should not even know how to reset the PRAM unless told to do so by some knowledgeable authority not just this thread. That's what Apple is all about... Not all people should have to know how to fix their computers, those people own PC's. As for the Apple world people should be able to trust that the updates that they get will work, and if they don't they should be reassured that it will be fixed soon, especially on a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 piece of equipment.

iyacyas said:

I believe every one is welcome in this thread, as all knowledge is useful. Snide comments can be left out. Do you have a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 machine that is working after the update? Do you have a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 machine that is not working after the update? Either way there are some that need help with the issue. It's an Apple it should just work, right!!! There are many people out there that should not even know how to reset the PRAM unless told to do so by some knowledgeable authority not just this thread. That's what Apple is all about... Not all people should have to know how to fix their computers, those people own PC's. As for the Apple world people should be able to trust that the updates that they get will work, and if they don't they should be reassured that it will be fixed soon, especially on a new $1200.00 to $2000.00 piece of equipment.

Click to expand...

Tru dat.